b-activists: Filmmaker shows what it’s like to be black in Israel
by Guest Contributor Akshay, originally published at b-listed
Shmuel Beru arrived in Israel at age 8 with the first wave of Ethiopian immigrants in 1984. Classmates, who’d never seen a black person before, rubbed his skin to see if the color would come off. Growing up, they called him the “chocolate boy” and worse.
Today the actor-writer has turned his childhood struggle for acceptance into the first Ethiopian-made feature film exploring what it’s like to grow up black in Israel. Drawing inspiration from filmmaker Spike Lee’s stories about racial conflict in the United States, Beru examines sometimes-racist Israeli society. In a nation with so many competing well-documented narratives — Jewish, Palestinian, Christian — Beru’s “Zrubavel,” which premiered in June, and has already garnered international praise, offers yet another perspective.
“Zrubavel” is a classic immigrant saga, showing a younger generation fighting for acceptance and an older generation striving to keep its children rooted in the traditions of home. The film follows the hard-working grandfather, a former Ethiopian army colonel reduced to sweeping streets in his new life; the son-in-law whose embrace of ultra-Orthodox Judaism alienates his family; the pony-tailed college dropout, trapped between his father’s dream that he become Israel’s first black fighter pilot and a society pushing him toward more “suitable” work as a restaurant cook.
Since the 1980s, more than 80,000 Ethiopians have immigrated to Israel, many escaping famine and poverty in the Horn of Africa nation. According to Beru, “The most disturbing thing is that even after 30 years, if you ask me if we’ve turned the corner for the second and third generations of Ethiopians, I can’t say we have with any real confidence,” he said. He also says he hopes his film would counter negative stereotypes about Ethiopian immigrants.
The film hasn’t premiered in the US yet, but you can already find and order it from any major retailer. Be sure to check it out…It really shows us how immigration and racism are problems even in societies we tend to ignore in such discussions.
(Image Credit: LATimes.com)
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Olivia wrote:
Interesting topic and one that I’d like to know more about. I’ve often thought Israel was a racist/zenophobic nation but who knows…
Posted 17 Aug 2009 at 12:15 pm ¶
7thangel wrote:
i would like to see Zrubavel if i can. their story and plight is important to see and learn more about.
i appreciate b-listed bringing this to our attention but i think b-listed should have been more specific and stated that these ‘immigrants’ were Beta Israeli’s from ethiopia (sometimes referred to as falasha though some find the term offensive or ethiopian jews) and were part of israels policy for jews outside of isreal much like russia but at a much slower rate. until the civil war and the famine that followed forced israels hand in 2 mass exodus.
Posted 17 Aug 2009 at 12:29 pm ¶
Amused0472 wrote:
There’s a French-made film called “Live and Become” on this same topic.
Posted 17 Aug 2009 at 12:38 pm ¶
Amused0472 wrote:
“Live and Become” is available at Netflix.
Posted 17 Aug 2009 at 12:39 pm ¶
Lauren O wrote:
There’s also a great non-documentary movie called Live and Become about a little boy in Ethiopia whose mother is dying, so she lies and says he’s Jewish so that he can get adopted in Israel after she’s dead. The movie follows him as he grows into young adulthood and struggles with his identity as both a black person in Israel and a secret non-Jew. Highly recommended.
Posted 17 Aug 2009 at 12:57 pm ¶
Abu Sinan wrote:
I will be sure to try and see this. I have been in Israel and Palestine many times and have always thought the poor treatment of Israeli PoCs kind of undermined the entire state of Israel.
If the state of Israel is supposed to be a “Jewish state” why is mistreatment of Jews from outside of Europe so widespread?
Arab Jews have a rather hard time in Israel as well.
This ia great topic that I’d love to hear more about. The narrative in the West almost completely excludes PoC Israeli Jewish points of view.
Posted 17 Aug 2009 at 1:00 pm ¶
Elton wrote:
Sounds eerily similar to the Asian American immigrant experience.
Posted 17 Aug 2009 at 2:16 pm ¶
Xey wrote:
Very interesting topic. I’d love to see this. Also, @Amused0472 , thanks for the tip on the other film!
Posted 17 Aug 2009 at 2:17 pm ¶
Kaonashi wrote:
“Live and Become” is a great film.
Posted 17 Aug 2009 at 8:47 pm ¶
Hm. wrote:
“Beru examines sometimes-racist Israeli society.”
What does “sometimes”-racist mean? Either one is racist or not.
And.. “In a nation with so many competing well-documented narratives — Jewish, Palestinian, Christian ”
Palestinian narrative is well-documented? That’s funny to say when people are still tryin to deny a “Palestinian” narrative even exists and many scholars still deny the high number of 100,000s of people exiled from palestine in 48. palestinian narrative is not so much competing with the jewish narrative, “over-powered by’ would be a better word.. or maybe crushed by would be another verb to use rather than “compete”..And why do you seperate the palestinian narrative from the christian narrative? Hmmmmmmm…………
Posted 18 Aug 2009 at 12:05 am ¶
RCHOUDH wrote:
Interesting film worth watching! I’ve also always been interested in the experiences and lives led by POC Jews, particularly in Israel. I’ll be sure to check this out!
Posted 18 Aug 2009 at 12:47 am ¶
luckyfatima wrote:
I saw a documentary, although I can’t for the life of me recall the name of it, in which the film maker, a Russian origin Israeli Jew, claimed that there were underlying racial reasons for why Israel allowed so many Russians to immigrate in very recent times, many of whom are of dubiously Jewish origin. It was not only to build up the Israeli population and bring former Soviet ethnically Jewish diaspora back to a Jewish identity, but also to ensure that Israel evolves with a much higher whiter/European origin population rather than Sephardi or Mizrahi.
Posted 18 Aug 2009 at 3:35 am ¶
Abu Sinan wrote:
@Hm,
Good points. Most Christians in Israel/Palestine are Palestinian, so why a seperate narrative?
@Luckyfatima,
The policy, or whatever you call it, has backfired. Sure they brought over more white Russians to balance the non white Jews, but then you get these same non Jewish/secular Jews that are stomping around Israel celebrating Hitler and being all around neo-nazi hooligans.
There is systemic racism in Israel. Non white Jewish Israelis are under represented in almost every category in Israel. They are less likely to finish school, less likely to go to higher education, less likely to get good jobs when they do graduate.
One cannot argue cultural issues because the above facts are true even for 2nd and 3rd generation non white Jews in Israel.
Posted 18 Aug 2009 at 10:05 am ¶
Matt wrote:
Oy, there are so many minefields here. Yes, there’s racism in Israel, but not more than in plenty of other nations. Possibly less. Israel was also the first nation in the world to take in Vietnamese refugees. And as Darfurian refugees risked death crossing Egypt, Israel gave citizenship to a few hundred (often criticized in Israel for not being enough). For a long time, the Ashkenazi elite discriminated against Mizrahi Jews, but with the relaxation that came with Oslo (and has since left), Israeli society began to address that in a surprisingly open way.
But everyone knows Jews are powerful and antisemitism is a thing of the past (and besides, Jews are all racist — look at the brazen ethnic cleansing on display here). Of course, too bad there’s no antisemitic genocide anymore because we all cared about Jews then. So now Jews are always handy scapegoats to throw under the bus?
And Abu Sinan, “Arab Jews” like Albert Memmi don’t need you speaking on their behalf.
That’s the biggest thing. What starts as a post about a film by an Israeli becomes, in the comments, a whole lot of people talking about and for Israelis and Jews.
Posted 18 Aug 2009 at 10:23 am ¶
Abu Sinan wrote:
@Matt,
What a nice way to dodge inconvenient facts. No one here is talking anti-Semitic so it would seem to me that the only reason you are bringing up those things is to try and silence the discussion here.
Sorry….wont work! Yeah, Israel is less racist that some countries, but much more racist than other countries.
Have you ever been to Israel Matt? It is all nice and fine to talk in abstracts about things, but unless you have actually been there and seen what is going on you don’t really get it. Sure, Israel took in some Vietnamese and some Sudanese. So what? America took in Iraqis, Palestinians, Hispanics and Africans. Does this mean we aren’t a racist society? It really means nothing. Germany took in millions of non white Turks, are they not a racist country?
As a person of Jewish background myself, albeit not Mizrahi or Sephardic, I think it is a crying shame that Jewish PoCs have to fight racism in a country that is supposed to be the home of the Jews! Or should it be “Home of the European Jews”? Why should Arab Jews feel they have to give up their traditions and their background to be successful in Israel? Why should Ethiopian Jews feel they have to distance themselves from where they came from to be more Israeli?
Israel has a VERY serious problem with racism. The difference here is that PoC Israelis actually are about 50% of the Israeli population. So yeah, there is systemic, massive discrimination in Israel against Jewish PoC, 50% working very hard to keep the other 50% down. 2nd and 3rd generation Israelis without the same opportunities that their white/European Israeli counter parts have.
Sad….no matter how you try to divert the subject. You might think Israel is “post racial” but having spent a lot of time there I can tell you that they are about as “post racial” as we are here in the USA.
This post wasn’t just about “Israel”, it was about being black in Israel. Sorry to say, but it would seem that Jewish Arabs/Sephardic/Muzrahi kept their culture more intact in Arab and other lands than they did in Israel. Jews lived side by side for 1,500 years and retained the ability to control their own cultures and who they were. In Israel they have lost their culture in 50 years…..sometimes even less. I have known Jews in Morroco and even in that Muslim country they are much more able to define who they are, their culture and religion easier than they can in Israel. In 100 years there will still be Sephardic Jewish culture in Morroco, sad to say that in Israel it is almost already gone. This isnt an accident.
I found your comment very offensive, as if you are the only one who has the right to talk about Jewish and Israeli issues. There are at least two people with Jewish backgrounds who posted here……they dont have a right to express themselves?
Posted 18 Aug 2009 at 12:21 pm ¶
Abu Sinan wrote:
For a great explaination of the daunting issues facing PoC Israelis I suggest the link below:
http://israeljewishnews.blogspot.com/2008/05/sephardim-face-old-fashioned.html
Posted 18 Aug 2009 at 12:28 pm ¶
Matt wrote:
Funny you never say, “As a Jew.” (Not that that would justify anything.) You don’t identify as one, so don’t claim the authority to speak as one. And definitely don’t claim the authority to speak for others. Is racism in Israel a problem? Sure. But Mizrahi Jews in Israel have a very different perspective on it than you do. They wouldn’t want you speaking on their behalf.
Israel is singled out constantly. That’s the very definition of discrimination. And you want to pile on.
Posted 18 Aug 2009 at 12:36 pm ¶
Joseph wrote:
” Israel is singled out constantly. That’s the very definition of discrimination.”
That did not take long at all. I had “before comment #20″ in the pool. Hello, five bucks.
Posted 18 Aug 2009 at 12:53 pm ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:
@Matt –
I can understand that you feel Israel is often unfairly singled out.
However, this is a thread ABOUT Israel. Specifically, blacks and other minorities growing up there.
Let other people speak.
Posted 18 Aug 2009 at 1:01 pm ¶
Abu Sinan wrote:
@Matt,
So you now are the person who claims to be able to tell everyone else what they are, or arent? I dont have to self identify myself as Jewish to have a Jewish background. I am a Muslim convert, I come from a Jewish background on my father’s side, not that I have to prove anything to you. If I say I come from a Jewish background then I come from a Jewish background and you cannot tell me other wise. “Luckyfatima” comes from a Jewish background as well, but is now a Muslim. We have both made that clear here before so I gues we dont need your permission to be Jewish, unless of course, your claim is that only someone who practices Judaism is a Jew, in which case that leaves a majority of Israelis as not Jewish.
Obviously you probably wrote your comment BEFORE you read the link I included from a Sephardic Jew, including lots of information from various reports and articles confirming the MASSIVE issue of racism in Israel. Documented FACTS Matt, not opinion. How else do you explain things like lower funding for Sephardic schools and programming?
Your reponse made it clear. You arent interested in dealing with facts, you just are trying to shut people up.
Israel is being talked about because this thread IS ABOUT ISRAEL.
Do you want me to go on an on about racism in Russia when it is a thread about being black in Israel? Sorry, I think we should talk about Israel in a thread about being black in Israel. Part of being black, Arab, brown ect in Israel is discrimination. You might not like it, but it is FACT.
Get over yourself and stick to the topic here. Read the article in the link I gave. If you can provide reports and evidence to counter the published reports about the major issues of racism in Israel please do so. If you cannot then it is clear you are wrong.
I also notice you didnt address whether you had been in Israel or not. You are willing to expound here about Israel, against publish reports and facts, yeet you havent been to Israel?
Israel is as “post racial” as the USA. The problem with you is that you think that if you admit reality somehow it will be used against Israel. If you were intertested in what is best for Israel it means addressing REAL problems with REAL answers, not denying things and trying to shut people up and divert the discussion.
Posted 18 Aug 2009 at 1:10 pm ¶
B wrote:
@ Matt – Israel is singled out constantly because it has a very problematic leadership. As a Jew (there ya go), I don’t feel like the religious idea of Israel matches up with the current political reality there at all. It’s like being an American under Bush – love my country, rah rah, whatever, but it certainly didn’t stop me from protesting the utter shit my government heaped on people. As a Jew (again) I feel an absolute responsibility to protest any shit that the Israeli government or Ultra-Orthodox culture heaps as well – I can’t be a good Jew and turn a blind eye to it out religious loyalty or whathaveyou.
Granted, if people are pointing at Israel’s problems in an effort to “other” it and hide from the fact their own country is just as racist/sexist/etc., then of course that’s a problem – that’s a problem no matter which country ends up being the target (as Japan or any Middle Eastern country often is). But that doesn’t invalidate what I said.
Posted 18 Aug 2009 at 1:12 pm ¶
Matt wrote:
Look, lots of countries have problems that we have complicated responses to. I’m thinking Iran and feminism, or Iran and antisemitism, or a variety of other examples. Except for Israel. All nuance goes out the window with Israel. It’s always pile on Israel time!
Other countries have problems with racism, but Israel is seen as fundamentally racist. It’s very existence is racist. Anyone who thinks it should exist is racist. Anyone who doesn’t want to destroy it is racist. So who cares about whether it’s unfairly singled out?
How about some recognition that the film was warmly received with an award from the Haifa Film Festival. Or that the Ha’aretz piece ends with his optimistic words, “And yes, I really believe this is possible. I believe that the media can make a difference.” (For that matter, that Ethiopian Jews were fleeing more than just a bad economy.) No, instead we get, “Either [Israel] is racist or not.” Everything MUST be all or none, Manichean, never complicated or nuanced.
And yahoos who think they can speak FOR Israelis who never appointed them as their ambassadors. Most Mizrahim in Israel vote for the right-wing Shas. They’re positions are pretty much the opposite of yours on just about everything. And, btw, many of them hate being called “Arab Jews.” They don’t want you as their spokesperson. It’s exactly what Said was writing about in Orientalism — people with agendas claiming the authority to speak for others.
And, yes, if you’re not going to identify as Jewish, then don’t claim the authority to speak as such.
Yes, there’s a vital debate inside Israel on race. And it’s amazing just how vital it is. But inside Israel the context isn’t the same as outside.
Posted 18 Aug 2009 at 2:21 pm ¶
ktrujillo wrote:
It seems a bit disingenuous to act as if this is just Matt’s favorite hobby horse when there are so many others here who will take any opportunity to ride this topic into the ground.
Posted 18 Aug 2009 at 2:25 pm ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:
Okay, heading this one off at the pass –
All further comments that are not specifically about this film, similar films, discussions from people living in Israel, or someone with something to add to this discussion that does not involve rehashing shit we have been over will be deleted.
*MOD NOTE*
Posted 18 Aug 2009 at 2:37 pm ¶
Abu Sinan wrote:
This comment isn’t about a film, rather a book written about Israeli films and race.
I think if anyone hasn’t read it, a great book about this subject is “Israeli Cinema: East/West and the Politics of Representation” by Professor Ella Habiba Shohat, an Arab Jewish Israeli . She talks about her family’s move to Israel from Iraq and the things that happened to them because of the racism and European mindset of those in the power structure in Israel.
It is well known that one of the first things that happens to people if you want to remove their culture and identity is to remove their language. Colonial powers were famous for this. In the book she describes how her relatives names were changed when they got to Israel. Their Arabic names were completely changed to Hebrew names. The one concept I love that she talked about was that Israel is a nation in the Middle East, comprised mostly of Middle Easterners, yet denies it is from the Middle East and wants to portray itself as a European country “just like us”.
She talks about how speaking her native language in Israel was against the rules in school and the abuse she had to put up with in Israeli schools because she was a Sephardic/Mizrahi Israelis.
She breaks down the various phases of Israeli film-making. Her adapt comparison was between early Israeli films, which often showed Arabs as savages and Israelis as the brave settlers, and similar American Western genre films hits dead on.
She has a documentary film that fits into this whole post well. It is called “Forget Baghdad: Jews and Arabs-The Iraqi Connection” about the Jewish community in Iraq where her family came from. It details the lives of five Iraqi Jews, most in Israel, and what being an Arab Jew in Israel means.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ella_Shohat
http://www.forgetbaghdad.com/
Posted 18 Aug 2009 at 3:25 pm ¶
Fiqah wrote:
This film looks absolutely amazing. I’d love to see it. I read the article linked in the post as well, and this quote from the author gave me pause:
There’s a naivete there that made me smile, albeit sadly. That statement alone speaks volumes about how different historical experiences of racism can shape a person’s outlook of it. That’s a post in and of itself.
Posted 18 Aug 2009 at 3:31 pm ¶
Zahra wrote:
Thanks for posting about this–I’d like to see this film.
I’d also highly recommend a documentary called “City of Borders,” ostensibly about the gay and lesbian community in Jerusalem, but in practice taking in a much larger slice of the country. I found it very smart in the way it integrated Jewish Israeli, Arab Israeli, Palestinian, Jewish, Muslim, atheist, etc. perspectives. One of the people profiled is an Arab Israeli lesbian, who has a lot to say about the racial discrimination she faces. Interestingly, that film was made by a group of Asian-American women.
Posted 18 Aug 2009 at 4:55 pm ¶
Matt wrote:
At Beta Israel of North America (which has the virtue of publishing online in English — on the other hand, they’re probably less Zionist than their compatriots in Israel), you’ll find this article. The target audience is Jews, and that’s important to keep in mind, because there’s a long history of taking Jewish disagreement out of context. Some
Jew says the Jewish community is imperfect, and pretty soon some gentile is screaming “See, the Jews are evil.” (And worse, to talk about some other time.) And that’s exactly what’s going on here.
When talking to Jews, the author lists many problems faced by Beta Israel. But you find this in the introduction: The aliyah of Ethiopian Jews to Israel was a most remarkable event in modern Jewish history that heightened the sense of ingathering and Jewish unity.2 The spectacle of pinkish-white-skinned Ashkenazim of post-industrial Jewish culture, light-brownskinned Sephardim and Middle Eastern Jews of medieval culture, the varied but often medium-brown-skinned Yemenite Jews of late Second Temple period culture, and the coffee-brown-skinned Beta Israel Ethiopians of First Temple period culture all working together and sharing the burdens and exaltations of defending the Jewish homeland—all this deflated the pernicious international charge that Israel is racist. It is conspicuous that the target audience is Jews with whom the author can define a common identity — not gentiles. It was the UN, and the OIC, and Durban, that made that charge of racism. It’s a claim made by plenty of powerful entities against a state denied even full participation in the UN, and I agree with Ephraim Isaac that the charge is pernicious. Moreover, it is singling out Jews and Israel, and it is discriminatory. It is racist in its selectivity, and the claim to speak for others is always problematic.
Posted 19 Aug 2009 at 12:18 am ¶
dejamorgana wrote:
Is it okay if I say stuff about the subject of this movie AND about Israel? I lived in Israel for 13 years. I was, in fact, an American immigrant living in the Tiberias absorption centre when the first wave of Ethiopian immigrants came in. It was and still is one of the most dramatic things I’ve ever seen. The Ethiopian Jews went through things most of us can only imagine as some kind of Hollywood fantasy. They survived famines and ethnic violence and civil war and walked barefoot for hundreds of miles through war zones to get airlifted to a country where most people didn’t even realise there were Ethiopian Jews. They got into the absorption centre in the middle of the night and were scared to death from being in a totally alien environment. They went through all that to become the most underprivileged Jewish members of Israeli society and deal with levels of racism that haven’t been seen in the US since Civil War days. It was a tragedy, and we’re still feeling the fallout from it. (I don’t live there any more, but every time I go back I can still see that things haven’t magically been fixed in my absence).
But let’s not forget that they were brought in by Israelis, who went out to rescue them from an intolerable situation because they were seen as part of our family. They were welcomed as Jews. And I believe that most Israelis saw them as brothers. Very distant brothers that they had never heard much about, who looked different from all other Israelis (and yes, there are a lot of Israelis with very dark skin, but there are no other Israelis who are what Americans think of as black or African), who had radically different customs, spoke a language that nobody else in Israel spoke, and had come from such an incredibly different culture that they had assimilation problems just about every day – but still brothers. I know that they were laughed at sometimes, and their differences were talked about all the time, and they had tremendous problems as a group. But it’s not okay to just say “wow, Israelis are so racist”. The absorption of the Ethiopians was a massive culture shock for them, for other immigrants, and for native Israelis. We all had a lot of mental adjustments to make.
I’m not for a moment trying to say there isn’t racism in Israel. There is, definitely. Ashkenazis really dominate Israeli culture, and there’s always been tension between the various cultural groups – the Yemenite immigrants went through the same problems the Ethiopians went through. So did the Iraqi, Iranian and Egyptian Jews in their time. Ashkenazi music and culture has always been regarded as the true “high” culture in Israel, and Sephardic Jews have tended to get pushed into lower-paying jobs.
The Ethiopians, who had the disadvantages of looking unlike everyone else in the country, undergoing massive culture shock and coming in such a big, cohesive group, got the worst of all the groups, and I think it affects them to this day. They’ve definitely integrated a lot more, and I doubt that anybody rubs their skin to see if the black comes off any more. But there are still problems.
But I have to say that the ethnic divides in Israel, with the possible exception of the Ethiopian immigration, were *never* as wide or as sharp as racial divisions in America, or in Britain. I lived in several different places in Israel, including a small town, a kibbutz and Tel Aviv, not to mention military service – and I can’t remember any place that was monocultural. In every place I lived, people mingled more than they do even today in most of America, we always got along together with a little bit of “man, you guys are so weird” coming from every direction, and there was never any kind of interracial violence, hate crime or institutional racism like we have in the grand old USA. I’ve been to just about every Jewish town in Israel, and NEVER encountered a situation where I felt “hey, I’m not so sure about this, I don’t think they want my kind here”. (I’m not talking about racism against Arabs and Druse – that exists on a completely inexcusable level, and is one of many reasons why I eventually left the country for good. I’m talking here about problems between different groups of Jews.)
###
Abu Sinan, I want to address a couple of your points that I think are relevant. I don’t want to deny your experience, but maybe I can cast some light on a few things:
First of all, almost every immigrant to Israel historically had to learn Hebrew and have their name changed. Learning Hebrew was a basic requirement. Immigrants must live in an absorption centre for a period of six months or more. They spend this time learning Hebrew. (I’m not sure if this still happens – in fact, I believe the practice broke down, like a lot of Israel’s old immigration practices, during the massive Russian immigration, when the numbers became too big for the absorption centres to handle). Speaking Diaspora languages, no matter which ones, has always been frowned upon in Israel. The premise is that we are Israeli, not Ethiopian or American or Iraqi immigrants but Israelis, and we will damn well speak Hebrew. Obviously there’s a difference between theory and practice, and you will hear a lot of different languages being spoken in Israel. But that was the idea.
Names were also changed for many, many Israelis, not only the oncs that came from Arab countries. When we immigrated, most of my family had actual Jewish names, except for my father. His name was promptly changed to an acceptable Hebrew replacement. There is no reason why this should be any different for an Iraqi immigrant.
Regarding assimilation and the “loss of traditional culture” in Israel: this is another thing that happens to all Israelis. You may be right that in 100 years a Moroccan Jew may have more of a sense of being a Moroccan Jew than a Moroccan Jew living in Israel. This is because the Moroccan Jew living in Israel isn’t supposed to be Moroccan, he’s supposed to be Israeli. The exact same thing happens to American, Argentinean and Ethiopian Jews. This was a conscious decision made when the country was founded, that Israel would accept all Jews from anywhere in the world, but on the condition that they had to become Israelis first and foremost. It was seen as one of the foundations of a strong Israeli society. In fact, most Jewish Israelis identify much more as Israelis than as Jews. This might not be admitted in official correspondence, but it’s true.
The Jew living in Morocco, meanwhile, retains his Jewish identity to the max. He’s living in diaspora. Jewish tradition is important to him, he identifies as a Jew, and he’s going to preserve that identity forever. This is how Jews maintained the Jewish identity for thousands of years. It’s breaking down in Israel, because Israel is evolving away from the religious identity and becoming a separate entity. On the other hand, I kind of think Morocco will be a little different in a hundred years, too.
Posted 19 Aug 2009 at 2:32 am ¶
Matt wrote:
Thank you, dejamorgana.
Posted 19 Aug 2009 at 9:07 am ¶
Fiqah wrote:
I’m curious. As an outsider (neither Israeli nor Jewish) I initially interpreted what Beru was talking about as racism, plain and simple. However, after reviewing some of the links provided by the other posters, it seems like the underlying problem is the centering of Ashkenazi culture and faith practices as normative, authentic and definitive Jewishness. Maybe I’m misreading it. I wasn’t even aware that this was an issue, so it’s all very new.
I’d like very much to further educate myself on this. If anyone has any suggested reading or viewing about this topic I’d really appreciate it.
Posted 19 Aug 2009 at 10:20 am ¶
Joseph wrote:
@B
“Granted, if people are pointing at Israel’s problems in an effort to “other” it and hide from the fact their own country is just as racist/sexist/etc., then of course that’s a problem – that’s a problem no matter which country ends up being the target (as Japan or any Middle Eastern country often is).”
Cosign. That is an excellent–and nuanced–point. Thank you.
@dejamorgana
“I lived in several different places in Israel, including a small town, a kibbutz and Tel Aviv, not to mention military service – and I can’t remember any place that was monocultural.”
I appreciate you sharing your experience (and your caveat about anti-Arab racism–thank you). I am struck by two things though: Israel is, by definition, monocultural. It is, of course, a self-styled “Jewish State” and– as you have described in great detail– immigrants are required to abandon their original languages, names, and other cultural affiliations in favor of a singular Jewish one… more specifically a European Jewish one, which is the point here. While I don’t doubt your recollection about the immigration of Ethiopian immigrants to Israel I am also conscious that your point of view is in sharp contrast with that expressed by the filmmaker Shmuel Beru, an actual Ethiopian Jew who lived it. And since the “Claim to speak for others” is being questioned here then perhaps we should allow him to speak for his experience, which seems to be the point of this film?
Posted 19 Aug 2009 at 12:21 pm ¶
Joseph wrote:
Please forgive two posts so close together, I wanted to avoid submitting one super-long comment and I have a question for the author of the post:
@Akshay
I haven’t seen this film yet, could you tell me if there is any mention made of the fact that Israel– like the United States–was an important strategic partner of Apartheid South Africa? It is reasonable to assume that Israeli support for South Africa’s white Apartheid government, which preceded the first wave of Ethiopian immigration to Israel by decades, may have influenced Israeli social attitudes toward Africans in general.
For those who are unfamiliar with the close relationship between Israel and Apartheid South Africa I’ll quote from an August 2009 Le Monde diplomatique article by its editor Alain Gresh that summarizes the close and complicated history the share:
“Moshe Sharett, the Israeli foreign minister, made his first visit to South Africa in 1950. In November 1984 {the same year that Ethiopian Jews began to arrive in Israel}, when the UN had decided on sanctions against the apartheid regime, South African foreign minister Roelof Frederik “Pik” Botha visited Israel. Yitzhak Rabin was then Israel’s prime minister…
Israel was the only country in the world to have relations with the puppet Bantustans, some of which were even twinned with Israeli West Bank settlements… The bedrock of the relationship between the two countries was in the first instance economic, under the aegis of the Histadrut (the ’socialist’ trade union congress), which controlled a significant part of the Israeli economy during the 1970s and 1980s. Through the Hevrat Haovdim company, it enjoyed a quasi-monopoly over trade with South Africa. The kibbutzim played a part too: the Lohamei Hagetot (’fighters of the ghetto’) kibbutz, founded by Jews from eastern Europe who had fought the Nazis, ran the Kama chemical plant in the Kwazulu Bantustan…
When it came to the military and security, the alliance between the two countries took on a strategic dimension. Israel helped South Africa become a nuclear power (and) The Israeli military attaché in Pretoria was a high-ranking officer who was a member of the General Staff Forum (the only other Israeli military attaché to hold such high rank was based in Washington). Israeli arms were manufactured under license in South Africa…”
Significantly post-Apartheid the South African government has a markedly different attitude toward Israel. For example, in response to the 2008 assault on Gaza “the powerful Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), which had already stopped an Israeli arms shipment destined for Zimbabwe being unloaded in April 2008, called for a boycott of Israeli shipping.”
Does Beru’s film make mention of this history in the context of the discrimination he suffered?
Posted 19 Aug 2009 at 12:34 pm ¶
Tara wrote:
I feel like this comment thread is not a safe place for discussing anything, including racism in Israel. By the time I got to the bottom, my stomach was hurting.
Asking if Beru, a Jew of Ethiopian and not South African descent mentioned South Africa at the very end of a long polemical comment, seems completely disingenuous to me.
Mod Note – Agreed. Closing the comments. – LDP
Posted 19 Aug 2009 at 2:48 pm ¶